This invention relates to containers, and more particularly to an improved container within which a gas filter is positioned, the container being especially adapted for use in aircraft applications for filtering air-gas mixtures to render them breatheable.
Several known gas filter containers utilized in aircraft applications are of relatively flat construction adapted to employ filters which are removably positioned within a housing. The housing can comprise a pair of opposed, dish-shaped elements which are circumferentially attached to enclose one or more generally semi-circular filter elements positioned within the container. The containers themselves are usually of rigid, substantially non-yieldable construction and a particular filter container is most often adapted for use with only a single design of filter element.
In high speed aircraft where provisions are made for permitting a pilot or other crew member to forcibly eject himself from the aircraft because of engine failure or another substantial failure which would preclude his safely landing the aircraft, the use of such existing rigid filter containers has been found to be undesirable in that ejection at such high speeds as, for example, 600 miles per hour, imposes a substantial wind load on the crew member and on the items he may have attached to his flight suit. The prior art rigid containers which were positioned on the crew member's chest were found to have imposed significant loads on his chest during ejection because of the non-yieldable nature of the filter containers heretofore used.
In addition to the need to reduce the loads transferred to the body of the crew member, the necessity for utilizing a different container for each particular style of filter requires a rather substantial inventory both of filters and of filter containers.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the above-described difficulties and problems to provide an improved gas filter container which is adaptable for use with varying types of filter elements and which is so designed and configured as to elastically absorb part of the wind load ordinarily transferred to the wearer's chest during ejection.